CHAPTER 182: CHAPTER 182: BEYOND THE RUNES

The following weeks radically transformed Mordred’s perception of his own magical expertise. What he had initially envisioned as a simple technical step in his grand liberation plan proved to be an intellectual challenge of dizzying complexity, an enigma that called into question everything he thought he knew about enchantment magic.

The underground prison stretched before him like a labyrinth of stone and mystery, its walls seeping with arcane energy so dense it seemed almost tangible. The narrow corridors resonated with the dull hum of dozens of superimposed magical barriers, creating a discordant symphony of raw power that made the air itself vibrate. But it was the main barrier that captivated all his attention - a magical construction of unheard-of sophistication that defied all conventional understanding.

This barrier was not simply a wall of energy. It was an arcane work of art, woven from thousands of interconnected runes that danced along the stone walls like living constellations. Each symbol pulsed with an opalescent light that fluctuated according to complex rhythms, creating kaleidoscopic patterns that hypnotized the eye and troubled the mind. The fine curves of energy that crossed the barrier’s surface formed a network so intricate that it evoked the convolutions of a giant brain, as if the prison itself were endowed with intelligence.

Mordred stood motionless before this terrifying marvel, arms crossed, brow furrowed by a concentration so intense it became almost painful. His eyes tirelessly scanned the symbols, searching for a pattern, a logic, any clue that might reveal the secret of their functioning. But the more he observed, the more the runes seemed to mock him, their forms eluding his understanding like mirages in the desert.

Beside him, Livia watched this silent battle between man and magic with a mixture of fascination and concern. She had learned to recognize the signs of budding obsession in Mordred: the rigidity of his posture, the fixity of his gaze, that way he had of unconsciously clenching his fists when frustration mounted. She knew he was capable of staying in this position for hours, defying the runes through sheer force of will, as if he could compel them to reveal their secrets through a simple act of determination.

- "Everything alright, Mordred?" she finally asked, her soft voice cutting through the heavy silence of the corridor. She already knew the answer, but she hoped that simply speaking might break the vicious circle in which he was mired.

He sighed deeply, a sound that seemed to carry all the weight of his weeks of failure. When he turned to her, she could see in his eyes that glimmer of defeat she had never seen before - he who had always found solutions to the most impossible problems, who had vanquished dragons and thwarted the plans of legendary mages, now found himself powerless before a few symbols carved in stone.

- "I understand absolutely nothing, Livia," he confessed, and the bitterness in his voice was palpable. "I don’t even know where to begin. These symbols... it’s as if they were written in a language that never existed, according to rules that defy all logic. It’s complete gibberish."

She approached, studying the runic carvings herself with attention she hoped was encouraging. The symbols danced before her eyes, forming patterns that seemed almost familiar before dissolving into incomprehensibility. She could understand Mordred’s frustration - it was like looking at words in a foreign language, where one sensed the existence of meaning without being able to reach it.

- "You mean you have no idea what they do?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. Sometimes, formulating the problem aloud helped clarify things.

- "Exactly," he replied with a weariness that was unusual for him. "I can feel their magic - my god, how I can feel it when we’re inside, yet the dragons sense nothing of our presence or the presence of this prison! It’s like standing near a forge fire, this constant heat emanating from each rune. But understanding their form, their functioning... it’s like trying to grasp water with your hands. The more I think I understand them, the more they escape me."

Livia smiled, attempting to inject some lightness into this heavy atmosphere. She knew Mordred well enough to know that humor was sometimes the only way to pierce his armor of intellectual pride.

- "If it were easy, it wouldn’t be fun, would it?"

He looked at her with such incredulity that she almost burst out laughing. The expression on his face oscillated between indignation and amusement, as if he didn’t know whether to be offended or grateful for her attempt at levity.

- "Fun?" he repeated, his voice rising a notch. "You call this fun? Livia, I’ve spent three weeks staring at these damned runes. I’ve tried every spell I know, I’ve meditated before them until my head ached, I’ve even tried drawing them to see if reproduction would reveal their secret. Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

She shrugged with calculated nonchalance, knowing that her apparent casualness would only fuel his determination.

- "Would you perhaps prefer to go back to directly confronting Syléane Ignivara? I’m sure she’d be delighted to see you again."

This remark drew a small laugh from him, the first she’d heard from him in days. He slowly shook his head, and she could see that her attempt at humor had at least partially hit its mark.

- "Very funny," he muttered, but his voice had lost some of its bitterness. "No, I’m going to figure out how these runes work. I just haven’t found the right approach yet. There must be an angle of attack I haven’t considered."

The following days transformed this declaration of intent into a methodical obsession that bordered on monomania. Mordred developed an almost ritual routine, he arrived before the barrier at first light, settled on an improvised seat that he had come to consider his command post, and spent the entire day analyzing, experimenting, theorizing.

He first tried the tactile approach, running his hands along the carvings, hoping that direct contact would reveal details invisible to the naked eye. The runes were surprisingly warm under his fingers, pulsing with energy that seemed almost organic. But this warmth taught him nothing about their function or activation mechanism.

He then attempted to channel his mana directly into the walls, varying the intensity and frequency of his magical infusions. Sometimes the runes reacted by intensifying their glow, sometimes they seemed to absorb it completely. But these reactions were unpredictable, incoherent, as if the barrier behaved according to logic that was totally foreign to him.

He spent hours listening to the subtle vibrations produced by the symbols, literally pressing his ear against the cold stone. There were indeed sounds - a complex hum made of intertwined harmonics that sometimes evoked an almost recognizable melody. But when he tried to reproduce these frequencies with his own magic, the runes remained stubbornly inert.

He tried deep meditation, plunging into trances that lasted for hours, seeking to perceive the barrier with his magical senses rather than his eyes. In these altered states of consciousness, he could indeed perceive the energetic architecture of the enchantment - a three-dimensional network of stupefying complexity that extended far beyond what the visible carvings revealed. But this perception remained blurred, impressionistic, like observing a landscape through thick fog.

Each unsuccessful attempt only added another layer to his growing frustration. Mordred, accustomed to solving problems through intelligence and brute force, found himself confronted with a challenge that resisted both his favorite weapons. Worse still, he was beginning to doubt his own abilities - he who had always considered himself a prodigy of magic now wondered if he hadn’t overestimated his talents.

The runes seemed to develop their own personality in his tired mind. They mocked him, whispered secrets they refused to share, danced just at the limit of his understanding before cruelly withdrawing. He began to see them in his dreams, immense floating symbols that pursued him through labyrinths of opalescent light.

One evening, after a particularly trying day spent attempting to decipher a sequence of runes that seemed almost to form a coherent pattern before dissolving into incomprehensibility, Mordred literally collapsed onto his improvised seat. His legs no longer carried him, his eyes burned from staring too long at the magical lights, and his head buzzed with a persistent headache that had become his constant companion.

- "I’ll never manage at this rate," he let slip, and for the first time since she’d known him, Livia heard in his voice the echo of true defeat. It was no longer frustration or impatience - it was the bitter recognition of his own limits.

Livia, who had watched him progressively sink into this destructive spiral, slowly crossed her arms and looked at him with a mixture of compassion and firmness. She had learned to recognize the moments when Mordred needed to be saved from himself, and this was definitely one of them.

- "Maybe you should take a break, Mordred," she suggested gently. "You’re forcing things too much. Sometimes the solution comes when you stop desperately searching for it. Step back, let your mind rest."

He raised his eyes to the stone ceiling, following with his gaze the natural cracks that serpentined through the rock like fossilized rivers. The irony wasn’t lost on him - he who was capable of manipulating magical forces capable of razing mountains found himself defeated by a few lines carved in stone.

- "Maybe you’re right," he admitted reluctantly. "But I can’t give up, Livia. This barrier isn’t just an obstacle - it’s our only chance. Without understanding how it works, I can’t create a network of invisible tunnels sophisticated enough to escape detection. And without this network..."

He left his sentence hanging, but they both knew how it ended. Without this network, the slaves would remain prisoners, Syléane Ignivara would continue her abominable experiments, and their mission would be a resounding failure.